VILNIUS: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government has freed 52 political prisoners, his Lithuanian counterpart said on Thursday, crediting US efforts to secure their release.
President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X that “52 prisoners safely crossed the Lithuanian border from Belarus today,” including six Lithuanians, saying he was “deeply grateful” for Washington and President Donald Trump’s involvement.
According to the state news agency Belta, 14 with foreign citizenship were among those freed — six Lithuanians, two Latvians, two Poles, two Germans, one French national and a Briton.
Trump has pushed Belarus to free political prisoners in contacts with Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has ruled since 1994, stamping out free media and political opposition.
Nauseda urged further prisoner releases, saying: “More than 1,000 political prisoners still remain in Belarusian prisons and we cannot stop until they see freedom!“
The latest release came as a US official on a visit to Belarus on Thursday said Washington had lifted sanctions on the country’s state airline, Belavia.
“As of right now, we’re lifting sanctions on Belavia,” said Trump’s deputy special envoy John Cole in a meeting with Lukashenko, which was broadcast on state television.
“Right now, they’re lifted... the president (Trump) three times said, ‘do it’, so we didn’t have to go through all the bureaucratic stuff. So it’s done by the State Department, Treasury and Commerce.”
At a news conference, Nauseda said that among those released were “opposition figures, journalists and participants in protests.”
He did not disclose the identity of those freed, with the exception of the Lithuanian national Elena Ramanauskiene, who was jailed last year on espionage charges.
In June, 14 political prisoners were released from prison in Belarus, including Sergei Tikhanovsky, the husband of the exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
